John Symond

John Symond (born 17 August 1947) is an Australian financial executive, the founder of 'Aussie Home Loans'.

Early life

Symond was born on 17 August 1947 in Crookwell, New South Wales and raised in Sydney. He spent most of his time between Brisbane, where his mother's family lived, and Sydney, near his father's relatives. He was one of seven children and the son of Lebanese immigrant fruit shop owners, and regularly helped at his parents shop before and after school.

He attended eleven different schools, including St Patrick's College, Strathfield, St Laurence's College, South Brisbane and Homebush Boys High School where he matriculated in 1965. After leaving school, Symond studied law and joined a firm in Bankstown where he learned conveyancing and specialised in property and finance.

By the late 1980s, he had created a boutique financial services company, Mortgage Acceptance Corporation (MAC), that specialised in finding and providing commercial and investment loans to small-time investors. One of Australia's first mortgage brokers, he eventually undertook a joint venture with a subsidiary of State Bank of South Australia, Beneficial Finance. When State Bank of South Australia went broke in the 1980s, he came within a whisker of bankruptcy, and it was this negative experience with a bank that formed the basis of the Aussie philosophy – offering better deals and better customer service to everyday Australians.

Aussie Home Loans

Supported by a loan from his older brother Michael, he founded Aussie Home Loans in February 1992 and was able to fulfil his ambition. Symond was widely credited with bringing competition to the Australian home lending industry. The company was unique in its approach to home loans, offering 24 hours a day service and loans far cheaper than those offered by banks. In 1994 Aussie introduced the securitisation of home loans, allowing it to offer loans upwards of 3% cheaper than its competitors. The company rapidly grew as consumers became aware of its products and that of other non-banks and the competition heated up. In 2012 Aussie acquired Mortgage aggregator nMB, which brought its total portfolio value to $56.4 billion. In May 2013 The Commonwealth Bank increased its investment in Aussie from 33 per cent to 80 per cent, and will subsequently move to 100 per cent ownership. John Symond remains the executive chairman of Aussie.

Personal life

Symond has two children, Stephen and Deborah. He has been involved with numerous organisations such as Jeans for Genes.

He has a substantial collection of Australian art deco and contemporary art including works of Brett Whiteley and Sidney Nolan. He owns a 90-foot Sunseeker named Xanadu.

Awards

In 2002, he was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia.

In 2004, he was inducted into the Australian Banking and Finance Magazine’s Hall of Fame in May 2004 – the first non-banker to be admitted.

In August 2011, he was listed eighth in The Australian Financial Review's poll of the most influential business, economic and political leaders of the past 60 years.^[1]

In August 2012, he was named Australian Father of the Year.^[2]

In July 2013 he was honoured with the 2013 Gold Harold Humanitarian Award, at the sixth annual Gold Harold Awards, for his ongoing philanthropic interest in children's causes and charities.

References

External links

• Case Study on John Symond
• Interview on ABC
• article in The Sydney Morning Herald
• The Bulletin magazine: Lunch with John Symond
• "inform ARTICLE" on John Symond
• report on John Symond on Stereo 974
• Aussie Home Loans – Homepage
• Official – John Symond